User:Jhenderson777/Superman in comics

Superman is a multi-media fictional titular superhero that first originated in American comic books published in what is now called DC Comics. The comics is considered the main source material for the iconic fictional character and anything beyond that is a media adaptation of the character. The superhero first appeared in the anthology series Action Comics in issue #1 by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster which helped pave the way for the Golden Age of Comic Books. Since his inception he has appeared in recurringly in DC Comics as one of many mainstay recurring superhero protagonists within the shared universe of the publication company or sometimes in alternate realities within the fictional multiverse. The character was written by many writers since then.

1930s


Superman was first created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster first published in April 18, 1938 in the anthology American comic book, Action Comics. The character first appeared in the very first issue (cover dated: June 1938) both being featured within the comic book cover and also appearing as the very first story within the comic book. Superman's comic book cover appearance was deemed accidental due to headline pressure by Jack Liebowitz, the one who started the comic book. Lieboeitz stated that it was selected due to it being a thrilling looking cover. The comic book was a success, being sold out after release. Though it would take time for realization that the Superman strip was responsible for it. Superman's initial superpower was depicted as having superhuman strength, leaping 1/8th a mile, running faster than a locomotive and being bulletproof. The very first appearance of the fictional character in comics helped pioneer what is now called the Golden Age of Comic Books. Superman's popularity helped make comic books a major arm of publishing ever since his successful debut. which led rival companies to create superheroes of their own to emulate Superman's success. The issue's first featured tale which starred Superman was the first to feature an origin story of superheroes with the reveal of an unnamed planet later known as Krypton that he is said to be from. Superman is portrayed as working for the Daily Star as the mild mannered reporter known as Clark Kent under leadership of an unnamed boss later named as George Taylor. The issue also contained the first essential supporting character and one of the earliest essential female character in comics with Lois Lane as Superman's first depicted romantic interest. An unnamed "office boy" retconned as Jimmy Olsen's first appearance was revealed in Action Comics #6's (November 1938) Superman story by Siegel and Shuster.

Beginning in January 1939, Siegel and Shuster would then create a black and white newspaper strip starring Superman syndicated through the McClure Syndicate, making Superman the first comic derived superhero to appear outside of comic magazines and also helped first introduce Superman's biological parents, Jor-El and Lara. A color Sunday version was added in November. The Sunday strips had a narrative continuity separate from the daily strips. Siegel had to delegate the Sunday strips to ghostwriters. The first ghostwriter was Paul H. Cassidy. Who was responsible for adding S to the cape of the superhero along with making the suit more dynamic like adding folds and wrinkles. He even done some of the work on his own.

The popularity of Superman inspired imitations and clones. The first of these that DC Comics filed a copyright infringement lawsuit got was Fox Feature Syndicate's Wonder Man creates by Will Eisner in Wonder Comics #1 which was brought to court in Detective Comics, Inc. v. Bruns Publications, Inc.. The court ruled in DC's favor to drop the character Wonder Man.

Superman would be first depicted as possessing the power of flight in Action Comics #13 (June 1939) along with having his first recurring supervillain debut in the same issue in the guise of Ultra-Humanite. One of Superman's next comic book magazine appearance outside of Action Comics was a special comic book focusing on the 1939 New York World's Fair. After Superman's popularity, National Allied Publications decided to launch an entirely new magazine featuring the single character, which at that time was unprecedented. Superman #1 appeared on the shelves in the summer of 1939. Superman now also had the distinction of being the first ever hero-character featured in more than one comic magazine. The first issue reflected on the character's origin on Earth a bit more by helping directly introduce Superman's adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, while also retelling many of the older tales in Action Comics with multiple tales. The next issues would continue to be either colorized edited remakes of newspaper strips of Superman or reprints of Action Comics or newer stories all together. Superman's home city would be first named as Metropolis in Action Comics #16 in September 1939. Also depicted for the first time for the character included X-ray vision as one of Superman's abilites in issue #18 of Action Comics (November 1939).

The Daily Star was renamed the Daily Planet (a more common setting of Superman) in a newspaper strip of Superman around November 1939.

1940s
Throughout the 1940s, Action Comics and Superman series would remain onward all the way throughout the decade with many Superman tales. Telescopic vision and super-breath was debuted as a super power of Superman's in Action Comics issue #20 (January 1940). Luthor, a villain who would later become Superman's archenemy, was introduced in issue #23 of Action Comics (April 1940). By issue #7 of Superman, Superman was being hailed on the covers as the "World's Greatest Adventure Strip Character" and Taylor was later replaced with Perry White that was first used in The Adventures of Superman radio serial.

In the early 1940s, the series Superman was selling over a million copies per month. In the earlier decades of Superman comics, artists were expected to conform to a certain "house style". Joe Shuster defined the aesthetic style of Superman in the 1940s. Initially, Siegel was allowed to write Superman more or less as he saw fit because nobody had anticipated the success and rapid expansion of the franchise. But soon Siegel and Shuster's work was put under careful oversight for fear of trouble with censors. Siegel was forced to tone down the violence and social crusading that characterized his early stories. Editor Whitney Ellsworth, hired in 1940, dictated that Superman should not kill. Sexuality was banned, and colorfully outlandish villains such were thought to be less nightmarish for young readers. Also an unpublished story entitled "The K-Metal from Krypton" was rejected by DC for unknown reasons due to Clark Kent exposing his Superman identity to Lois Lane. It would be known as story that first features a prototype of the fictional object known as Kryptonite. World War II and United States patriotism would play a huge factor on the Superman comic books of the 1940s. Superman punching Adolf Hitler and fighting Nazism among other fascisms was quite common. Superman encouraging readers to buy war bonds was present at the time as well. These features were looked back in the Modern Age as racist especially the ones involving Japanese people at the time.

Characters like Fawcett Comics' Master Man (who first appeared in Master Comics #1) were threatened with lawsuits by National Comics (now DC Comics) if Fawcett didn’t discontinue. National Comics accused Master Man as being too similar to Superman. Fawcett compromised by discontinuing Master Man in the sixth issue of Master Comics.

New York World's Fair Comics series would continue with one more issue depicting the first cover of him together alongside Batman and Robin. The idea of pitting Superman and Batman in separate stories in the same anthology comic book magazine and also being in the same cover together would continue on in the series World's Best Comics, later called World's Finest Comics. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "Pairing Superman and Batman made sense financially, since the two were DC's most popular heroes."

The newspaper strip would also remain outgoing throughout the decade. Although the ghostwriters would change. Paul. H. Cassidy would quit the comic book industry and Leo Nowak would replace him. Nowak was known for featuring the bald Lex Luthor by an error mistake that most fans would recognize and distinguish of as an iconic feature of the fictional character. Other contributors include Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta and Jack Burnley.

Superman would face competition with Fawcett Comics superhero, Captain Marvel. Who would start off as just as popular as Superman and later on more popular than Superman around the 1940s. Detective Comics Inc. tried to both have Fawcett cease publication of their successful Captain Marvel comics and have Republic Pictures withhold release of the Adventures of Captain Marvel film serial via a cease and desist in June 1941 but failed.

Mort Weisinger was an editor on the Superman comics from 1941, although his tenure was briefly interrupted by military service. He later came back in 1946. His first association was with Superman #11 (July–August 1941). Superman's best friend in the radio serial, Jimmy Olsen, first appeared as an officially named character in the story "Superman versus The Archer" in Superman #13 (Nov.–Dec. 1941). By 1942, artist Wayne Boring, who had previously been one of Shuster's assistants, would become a major artist on Superman.

Not only were there the selling of main comic books by DC. But there was promotional comic books first released originating with the superhero Superman starting around 1942 with titles such as the Superman-Tim series.

One recurring original villain within Superman rogues gallery was the Prankster, who first appeared in Action Comics #51 (August 1942) and was created by Jerry Siegel and John Sikela. The villain relies on pranks as gimmicks of his crimes.

The first story to feature a female counterpart to Superman was "Lois Lane – Superwoman," which was published in Action Comics #60 (May 1943). In the story, a hospitalized Lois Lane dreams she has gained superpowers thanks to a blood transfusion from the Man of Steel. She begins her own career as "Superwoman", complete with a version of Superman's costume.

Superman #23 (July–August 1943) featured the first Superman comic book story written by someone other than Jerry Siegel. The story "America's Secret Weapon!" was written by Don Cameron despite bearing Siegel's signature. Siegel wrote most of the magazine and daily newspaper stories until he was conscripted into the army in 1943, whereupon the task was passed to the ghostwriters. Boring would then succeed Shuster as the principal artist on Superman comic books. Also the drafting of other ghostwriters brought in Stan Kaye as inker. Boring then redrew Superman taller and more detailed. Mort Weisinger returned to his job at National after his discharge from military service in 1946, and resumed his editorship of the Superman comics.

The original Toyman, a recurring Superman rogue who used toys to commit crime was created by writer Don Cameron and artist Ed Dobrotka in issue #64 of Action Comics (September 1943). Siegel and Shuster then introduced another common rogue with Mister Mxyzptlk, an magical omnipotent imp trickster in Superman issue #30 (September 1944).

While Siegel was serving in Hawaii at the time, DC Comics decided to publish a new story featuring a child version of Superman called "Superboy", Who was first featured in More Fun Comics starting in issue #101 through #107 and then moved to be featured in the series, Adventure Comics, starting in issue #103 (April 1946) onward throughout the 1940s. The concept was based on a script Siegel had submitted several years before. Siegel was furious because DC Comics did this without having bought the character. After Siegel's discharge from the Army, he and Shuster sued DC Comics in 1947 for the rights to Superman and Superboy. The judge ruled that Superman belonged to DC Comics, but that Superboy was a separate entity that belonged to Siegel. Siegel and Shuster settled out-of-court with DC Comics, which paid the pair $94,013.16 (AFI $) in exchange for the full rights to both Superman and Superboy. DC Comics then fired Siegel and Shuster.

In 1947, Superman (along with Batman and Wonder Woman) would for the first time be featured as part of National's original superhero ensemble team, the Justice Society of America. Making the first appearance of the modern "Trinity" of DC Comics along with one of Superman's first crossovers within comic books.

Around 1948, following Siegel and Shuster's departure from the company over a Superman rights lawsuit, Mort Weisinger, the editor of the Superman line, brought along Curt Swan and Al Plastino as writers of Superman for Wayne Boring. Swan's first job pencilling the character was for Superman #51 (March–April 1948). Plastino did various Superman covers. According to Plastino, he was forced to copy Boring's style but gradually began using his own style.

After seven years, a new trial was discovered in March 1948 between the ongoing battle between comic book rivals, DC and Fawcett. The judge ruled that Fawcett had indeed infringed on Superman. However, the judge also found that the copyright notices that appeared with the Superman newspaper strips did not meet the technical standards of the Copyright Act of 1909 and were therefore invalid. Furthermore, since the newspaper strips carried stories adapted from Action Comics, the judge ruled that DC Comics had effectively abandoned the copyright to the Action Comics stories. The judge ruled that DC Comics had effectively abandoned the copyright to Superman and therefore forfeited its right to sue Fawcett for copyright infringement.

A more detailed origin story for Superman was presented in issue #53 of Superman (July 1948) to mark the character's tenth anniversary.

Exact sales figures for the early decades of Superman comic books are hard to find because, like most publishers at the time, DC Comics concealed this data to deny competitors, but given the general market trends at the time, sales of Action Comics and Superman probably peaked in the mid-1940s and thereafter steadily declined.

Outside of Superman's Action Comic and Superman, the Superboy comic books would remain another best-seller in comics with titles like Adventure Comics and Superboy. Win Mortimer would succeed Wayne Boring on the Superman newspaper strip around 1949. Plastino and writer Bill Finger produced the story for Superman #61 (Nov. 1949) in which kryptonite, which had originated on The Adventures of Superman radio program, made its way into the comic books. Many comics of the 1940s and 1950s lacked contributor credits, but research shows that Swan began pencilling the Superboy series with its fifth issue in 1949.

Superheroes starring in their comics would be scarce around the late 1940s and early 1950s after the end of the war with Superman comic and comic strips (along with Superboy comics) being the few exceptions who would continue on by DC under editorship by Mort Weisinger. The titles still continuing were Action Comics, Superman and World's Finest Comics. Superboy titles included were in Adventure Comics and Superboy. The fictional rural town of Smallville that Superboy was raised in was first referenced in Superboy (vol. 1) #2 (May 1949).

1950s
Superman and Superboy titles remained ongoing during 1950s. According to DC comics writer Will Jacobs, Superman was available in "great quantity, but little quality". Originally the Superboy comic series  debuted concepts like Superboy as a toddler as seen in issue #8. In issue #10 of Superboy there debuted a new prominent romantic interest called Lana Lang.

DC Comics would later appeal the decision of the allegation that Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel was too similar of Superman in the lawsuit National Comics Publications, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications, Inc.. Fawcett Comics decided to settle out of court and pay DC their demands and cease production of their comics.

Curt Swan and Edmond Hamilton collaborated with the first comics crossover meeting of Superman and Batman in Superman #76 (May–June 1952). The two heroes began teaming on a regular basis in World's Finest Comics #71 (July–August 1954) in a story done by Swan and Alvin Schwartz. Swan was assigned the art duties on a spinoff series entitled Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen first released in 1954. The series features Jimmy Olsen in his own adentures in a humorous way.

Krypto the Superdog debuted in Adventure Comics issue #210 (March 1955) in a Superboy story by Otto Binder and Swan.

The series Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsenwould debut Professor Potter in issue #22 as a noble professor whose inventions would often go awry by Olsen.

In issue #247 of Adventure Comics (April 1958), by Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino, Superboy met the Legion of Super-Heroes (Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl) a team of super-powered teens from the future.

Under editor Mort Weisinger, the Action Comics title saw a further expansion of the Superman mythology. Writer Jerry Coleman and Wayne Boring created the Fortress of Solitude in issue #241 (June 1958) and Otto Binder and Al Plastino debuted the villain Brainiac and the Bottle City of Kandor in the next issue the following month.

Following a tryout in Showcase #9 and #10, DC decided to give Lois Lane her own ongoing spinoff series called Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane.

Superman was the first DC title with a letters column as a regular feature beginning with issue #124 (September 1958).

Popular Superman rogue, Bizarro, who is commonly depicted as an reverse image of Superman, first debuted in Superboy #68 (Oct. 1958) by Binder and George Papp.

Superman #127 (February 1959) introduced a kryptonite powered King Kong styled supervillain to battle Superman referred to as Titano the Super Ape created by writer Otto Binder, penciler Wayne Boring and inker Stan Kaye.

The introduction of Supergirl by Otto Binder and Al Plastino occurred in issue #252 of Action Comics (May 1959). The comics depicts Supergirl as being born and raised in Argo City, a fragment of Krypton that survived destruction. When the city is doomed by a meteor shower, Kara is sent to Earth by her parents, Zor-El and Alura, to be raised by her cousin Kal-El, known as Superman. Supergirl adopted the secret identity of an orphan "Linda Lee", and made Midvale Orphanage her home. Supergirl promised Superman that she would keep her existence on Earth a secret, so that he may use her as a "secret weapon", but that didn't stop Supergirl from exploring her new powers covertly. Action Comics #255 published reader's letters-of-comment to Supergirl's first appearance; she had allegedly generated a sizeable and mostly positive reaction.

Jerry Siegel returned to DC Comics in 1959 at the prompting of his second wife.

1960s
Although Jerry Siegel did write some Superman stories, he no longer had any creative control, but instead answered to the direction of his editor. He would be involved with the creation of common various Legion of Super-Heroes superheroes introduced in Superboy tales such as Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid, Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Triplicate Girl, Phantom Girl and Matter-Eater Lad along with their rival team, Legion of Super-Villains. Bizarro's home planet, Bizarro World, is introduced later on.